Dragon Age: Inquisition
69 Achievements
1,570
106-134h
Xbox One
Xbox Series
Trial of the Fool
Take It Slow on: reach Skyhold at level 5 or less.
15
0.21%
How to unlock the Trial of the Fool achievement in Dragon Age: Inquisition - Definitive Guide
SnipedByAGir1
TrueAchievements
TrueAchievements
For this achievement you will need to start a new game. When creating your new game you will want to select the custom difficulty and under the trial options turn on Take it Slow. This will make you gain exp at half the rate.
Now for this playthrough you must reach Skyhold and be at level 5 or less. This means you can be a ways into level 5 when you reach Skyhold. You will want to avoid as many enemies as you can for this playthrough. If you can stealth past groups of enemies that's the best. Do not pick up any documents as these give xp. Play on casual to make it that much easier. Avoid quests if you can as they award exp. Do not recruit any followers for this playthrough.
For the first section of the game just blow through it as quick as you can until you reach the pride demon. Do not go off the beaten path. Just make your way straight to the Pride Demon. You will need to close the rifts along the way in this section as you can't skip them.
Once you are at Haven you will need to go to the Hinterlands to speak with Mother Giselle. Go there and speak with her. These are the things you will now want to do in the Hinterlands to gain power (you will need 4 power to unlock The Chantry Remains and 15 power to unlock either In Hushed Whispers or Champions of the Just):
- Unlock all Campsites (these award 1 power each and no xp gain)
- Save your game before speaking with the Requisition Officer here ( you get 1 power for each requisition). Make sure the officer has not given you a requisition that involves killing things. If she does just reload your save and try to get a different requisition. If the requisition is for mats you can either farm them while avoiding enemies or you can head to the Black Emporium and buy the mats from there. Remember you can even sell your crafting mats if you want. So sell what you don't need and use this money to buy the mats for the requisitions to make it go a bit faster.
- You can close a rift or two while here but remember they award xp, you will get 1 power for each one.
- Speak with Horse Master Dennet and get your horse. This will make avoiding enemies a bit quicker while you run to the campsites.
You can also head back to Haven and speak With Mother Giselle. She will have an easy requisition for you. As well Threnn has an easy requisition that involves gathering items readily available there in Haven. The logging stand is located on the North Side of the map across the ice lake.
You will need to head to Val Royeaux to initiate the missions for siding with the Templars or Mages. Once you have your 15 power decide which path you want to do. I chose the Templars but you should be able to pull it off either way. With the Templars I was able to skip through a ton of enemies. There are areas that you can run through and instead of engaging enemies just run through to the doors your supposed to go through. You can do the with the Mage side too. With the In Hushed Whispers at Redcliffe castle, when you get to the outside area there are 2 fade rifts. You don't actually have to close these. You can just run past and head to the door your supposed to go through and skip these fights entirely. Once you complete either mission head back to Haven.
You will now want to immediately start the mission In Your Heart Shall Burn. I was a bit into level 4 when I started this mission. Do the first part with defending the first trebuchet while it's loaded. When you get to the second trebuchet you have to defend just start turning the crank there. You don't have to kill the enemies. As soon as you turn the crank all the way the dragon appears. You will now want to skip everything and just run straight to the chantry. Sorry all the people in Haven can just be left to die. After the cutscence in the chantry I just stealthed past every single enemy right to the last trebuchet you have to load. You should be ok now to start turning the trebuchet. You can kill the first couple of groups that attack you if you really need to. It gets a bit hectic if you leave every enemy running around. When the boss came out I skipped killing them though and just turned the trebuchet to end the fight. After this you should be home free.
Go through the cave after the cutscene and use your rift ability on the demons there. Walk through the snow and make it to Skyhold. If you were level 4 for the trebuchet battle you should now be level 5 and have received this pain in the butt achievement
!
**For people arriving at Skyhold at level 5 or less and having trouble with the achievement popping, Pedrito9504 has stated that by fast travelling to another area he was able to get the achievement to pop. So try this out before attempting it all over again if it appears to be glitching on you.
Now for this playthrough you must reach Skyhold and be at level 5 or less. This means you can be a ways into level 5 when you reach Skyhold. You will want to avoid as many enemies as you can for this playthrough. If you can stealth past groups of enemies that's the best. Do not pick up any documents as these give xp. Play on casual to make it that much easier. Avoid quests if you can as they award exp. Do not recruit any followers for this playthrough.
For the first section of the game just blow through it as quick as you can until you reach the pride demon. Do not go off the beaten path. Just make your way straight to the Pride Demon. You will need to close the rifts along the way in this section as you can't skip them.
Once you are at Haven you will need to go to the Hinterlands to speak with Mother Giselle. Go there and speak with her. These are the things you will now want to do in the Hinterlands to gain power (you will need 4 power to unlock The Chantry Remains and 15 power to unlock either In Hushed Whispers or Champions of the Just):
- Unlock all Campsites (these award 1 power each and no xp gain)
- Save your game before speaking with the Requisition Officer here ( you get 1 power for each requisition). Make sure the officer has not given you a requisition that involves killing things. If she does just reload your save and try to get a different requisition. If the requisition is for mats you can either farm them while avoiding enemies or you can head to the Black Emporium and buy the mats from there. Remember you can even sell your crafting mats if you want. So sell what you don't need and use this money to buy the mats for the requisitions to make it go a bit faster.
- You can close a rift or two while here but remember they award xp, you will get 1 power for each one.
- Speak with Horse Master Dennet and get your horse. This will make avoiding enemies a bit quicker while you run to the campsites.
You can also head back to Haven and speak With Mother Giselle. She will have an easy requisition for you. As well Threnn has an easy requisition that involves gathering items readily available there in Haven. The logging stand is located on the North Side of the map across the ice lake.
You will need to head to Val Royeaux to initiate the missions for siding with the Templars or Mages. Once you have your 15 power decide which path you want to do. I chose the Templars but you should be able to pull it off either way. With the Templars I was able to skip through a ton of enemies. There are areas that you can run through and instead of engaging enemies just run through to the doors your supposed to go through. You can do the with the Mage side too. With the In Hushed Whispers at Redcliffe castle, when you get to the outside area there are 2 fade rifts. You don't actually have to close these. You can just run past and head to the door your supposed to go through and skip these fights entirely. Once you complete either mission head back to Haven.
You will now want to immediately start the mission In Your Heart Shall Burn. I was a bit into level 4 when I started this mission. Do the first part with defending the first trebuchet while it's loaded. When you get to the second trebuchet you have to defend just start turning the crank there. You don't have to kill the enemies. As soon as you turn the crank all the way the dragon appears. You will now want to skip everything and just run straight to the chantry. Sorry all the people in Haven can just be left to die. After the cutscence in the chantry I just stealthed past every single enemy right to the last trebuchet you have to load. You should be ok now to start turning the trebuchet. You can kill the first couple of groups that attack you if you really need to. It gets a bit hectic if you leave every enemy running around. When the boss came out I skipped killing them though and just turned the trebuchet to end the fight. After this you should be home free.
Go through the cave after the cutscene and use your rift ability on the demons there. Walk through the snow and make it to Skyhold. If you were level 4 for the trebuchet battle you should now be level 5 and have received this pain in the butt achievement
!**For people arriving at Skyhold at level 5 or less and having trouble with the achievement popping, Pedrito9504 has stated that by fast travelling to another area he was able to get the achievement to pop. So try this out before attempting it all over again if it appears to be glitching on you.
38 Comments
Nice GatorJCP! I was worried on my play through cause you just seem to level up so fast so I made a save before I did the mission with the Templars so I could just blow through it and then reload the save to recruit everyone for the other Trial achievements.
By SnipedByAGir1 on 11 Sep 2015 20:27
This was an absolute pain to achieve. I ended up completed Strange Bedfellows and Speaker Anais in the Hinderlands as they gave a small amount of XP but 2 power for recruiting the NPC.
By Mattricus on 13 Sep 2015 12:17
ultrachrist2
TrueAchievements
TrueAchievements
OK, people have some good in-depth solutions for this but if you're like me and want to spend more time killing things and less farming requisitions, this achievement does give you the leeway to do this (via rifts).
First of all, play a rogue. Stealth by every single encounter that doesn't require you to beat it.
Here's how to get all the power you need to trigger 'Your Heart Shall Burn' and get to skyhold:
1. Scout all camps in the Hinterlands and do the quest to assist the crossroads and get Mother Giselle back to Haven.
2. Do the quest in Val Royeaux "The Chantry Remains".
3. In Haven, do the requisitions for Threnn and Mother Giselle; they're very easy since Threnn's items are all around Haven and Mother Gisellle just wants herbs. You can farm the herbs or use your first inquisition perk on the skill that gets you a bundle of tier 1 herbs.
Back to the Hinterlands:
4. Get the horses.
5. Recruit Blackwall.
6. Complete ALL level 4 rifts. These are all the rifts near the camps except the ones near the bottom left camp, the bottom right of the map, and that one lv 12 one in the river near the horse guy.
7. Complete a single level 8 rift. There's one due east of the bottom right camp. It's worth 2 power.
You should now have enough power to begin 'Champions of the Just'. So long as you continue to avoid enemies, you'll be able to start 'Your Heart Shall Burn' at level 4, just a little bit before level 5. This keeps you at level 5 for Skyhold.
Note the hardest encounter will be the final trebuchet in Your Heart Shall Burn. A cheap trick I used here was to run up the hill behind behind the Trebuchet. The enemies won't follow you too far and the dead bodies of your party will teleport to you so you can easily revive them. You can also use you party to pull enemies partway up the hill while you stealth down and turn the trebuchet crank.
First of all, play a rogue. Stealth by every single encounter that doesn't require you to beat it.
Here's how to get all the power you need to trigger 'Your Heart Shall Burn' and get to skyhold:
1. Scout all camps in the Hinterlands and do the quest to assist the crossroads and get Mother Giselle back to Haven.
2. Do the quest in Val Royeaux "The Chantry Remains".
3. In Haven, do the requisitions for Threnn and Mother Giselle; they're very easy since Threnn's items are all around Haven and Mother Gisellle just wants herbs. You can farm the herbs or use your first inquisition perk on the skill that gets you a bundle of tier 1 herbs.
Back to the Hinterlands:
4. Get the horses.
5. Recruit Blackwall.
6. Complete ALL level 4 rifts. These are all the rifts near the camps except the ones near the bottom left camp, the bottom right of the map, and that one lv 12 one in the river near the horse guy.
7. Complete a single level 8 rift. There's one due east of the bottom right camp. It's worth 2 power.
You should now have enough power to begin 'Champions of the Just'. So long as you continue to avoid enemies, you'll be able to start 'Your Heart Shall Burn' at level 4, just a little bit before level 5. This keeps you at level 5 for Skyhold.
Note the hardest encounter will be the final trebuchet in Your Heart Shall Burn. A cheap trick I used here was to run up the hill behind behind the Trebuchet. The enemies won't follow you too far and the dead bodies of your party will teleport to you so you can easily revive them. You can also use you party to pull enemies partway up the hill while you stealth down and turn the trebuchet crank.
3 Comments
Thanks for the last tip about the hill. It took a while to really get the method to work, but once it did it seemed all too easy. Finally!
By Cellar Attic on 30 Jan 2017 23:42
This worked perfectly. I did not have any trouble with the Trebechet even though I was expecting to. When I did it on Nightmare it seemed nearly impossible. I believe it was the most difficult part of the game. As you have no class specific perks yet like a Blackwall damage sponge. Anyway when I got to Skyhold I was not even halfway through level 5.
By Hexa Fox on 28 Jan 2019 05:24
Floyd, bantycakes, BiggD
Once “Take It Slow” has been activated, it’ll halve the amount of experience points you receive from every action and kill, thus making it a challenge to level up quickly. For this achievement, you need to reach Skyhold after the "In Your Heart Shall Burn" quest at or below Level 5. This means you'll be speed running through a lot of the quests, skipping side quests entirely, running past enemies unless they're part of a quest you must complete, and doing the bare minimum you can to progress through the narrative.
Also, take note that this achievement cannot be done via a previous save file. This must be done on a brand new playthrough, and the trial must be turned on the moment you are able to open the “Options” menu.
Take a look below for a comprehensive list and guideline of how to get this achievement done with ease from the moment the game opens to reaching Skyhold at or below Level 5.
General Tips
- Play on Casual/Easy
- Never pick up a document
- Avoid side quests unless you need Power (to be explained below)
- Avoid recruiting followers (if stacking with "Trial of the Lovers", you can recruit everyone without worrying)
Comprehensive Guideline
- As soon as you have control of your character, make your way through the opening sections of the game with Cassandra (then soon after, Solas and Varric) as quickly as possible.
- Avoid combat with Demons entirely unless it's to close a Fade Rift (there's no way around this).
- Once at Haven, travel to The Hinterlands and speak with Mother Giselle.
- Eliminate all the enemies at the crossroads here (there's no way around this) before speaking with her.
- At this point, you'll need 4 Power to unlock "The Chantry Remains" and 15 Power to unlock either "In Hushed Whispers" or "Champions of the Just."
- Return to The Hinterlands and roam the region to unlock every base camp while avoiding combat entirely unless necessary (1 Power per base camp, no XP gain).
- While at the final base camp, save your game and then speak with the Requisition Officer (1 Power earned for each Requisition fulfilled).
- Reload your save if the Requisition involves killing enemies.
- You can close a few Rifts if needed (1 Power earned per Rift), but be aware that this also nets XP.
- Speak with Horse Master Dennet and receive your mount; this will make traveling across the region quicker as to avoid combat.
- Return to Haven and complete the Requisitions for Mother Giselle and Threnn.
- Travel to Val Royeaux for the "The Threat Remains" quest.
- At this point, make a backup save just in case!
- If stacking "Trial of the Lovers", take your time to recruit Sera and Vivienne as their quests begin in this city.
- Take notice that when getting ready to leave the city, Fiona will ask you to visit Redcliffe in The Hinterlands.
- For now, return to Haven and collect the recruitment quests for Blackwall and Iron Bull.
- Go recruit Blackwall, then unlock the Storm Coast and recruit Iron Bull.
- With Sera, Vivienne, Blackwall and Iron Bull recruited, make a backup save just in case!
- Return to The Hinterlands and make your way to Redcliffe.
- Along the way, do what you can for the remaining Power needed to start "In Hushed Whispers."
- I closed almost every Rift in The Hinterlands and was fine in terms of my Level.
- Once you have 15 Power, make a backup save just in case!
- If you want to stack "Trial of the Magician", activate the "Travel Light" trial right now; it can be turned off after the quest is complete and the achievement unlocks.
- When you're all ready, return to Haven and start "In Hushed Whispers" for 15 Power.
- If you can run by enemies during this quest, do so as to avoid XP gain.
- The two Rifts outside the castle grounds during this quest can be avoided completely, as can the Rift inside the room where you're required to use a crank to open a large door.
- After the quest concludes, begin "In Your Heart Shall Burn" right away.
- You should be an early-to-mid, maybe even late-Level 4 at this point, which is fine.
- Proceed through this quest as you normally would, dealing with the two trebuchets.
- On the second trebuchet, ignore the fighting and simply focus on turning the wheel 100%.
- Once it's fully turned, a cutscene leading to the next portion of the quest will begin, thus avoiding a lot of killing (and as a result, XP gain).
- While running back to the Chantry, don't stop to help anyone.
- After the cutscene inside the Chantry, run past all the enemies on your way to the final trebuchet.
- If you absolutely need to kill a few Darkspawn for breathing room, don't be afraid to do so!
- When you reach the trebuchet and clear out the area, make a backup save just in case!
- Start turning the wheel of the trebuchet, stop only to fend off against the Darkspawn if necessary.
- When Knight Captain Denim appears, have your team take the aggro while you continue to turn the wheel, that way you avoid the XP gain for killing him or any of the other Darkspawn in the area.
- After a long cutscene, you'll awake in a cave and have to push on towards a few Demons.
- Take them out with your new ability and proceed onwards, out of the cave and through the snowy mountain pass until your companions rescue you.
- If you were a mid-to-late Level 4 during the trebuchet section of "In Your Heart Shall Burn," you will now be a Level 5, give or take a few XP.
- The achievement will unlock once you finally regain control of your character inside Skyhold's castle.
This achievement is tedious and annoying. But with the guidelines detailed above, hopefully it helps you gain just enough Power quickly enough to proceed with the necessary quests to advanced towards Skyhold. Just remember: avoid killing enemies unless you absolutely have to, don't be afraid of closing Rifts in The Hinterlands, and skip the boss fight during "In Your Heart Shall Burn" for less XP gain!
As a final reminder, if you're stacking "Trial of the Lovers" with this achievement given they both require a fresh new playthrough, don't forget to recruit those companions that don't come naturally during the narrative; that includes Sera, Vivienne, Blackwall, and Iron Bull!
